Young people get sick more often in colon cancer

The absolute Numbers are low, increasing significantly: The incidence of colorectal cancer is increasing among young people in Europe for many years, as an international researcher team in the scientific journal “reported Good”. In Germany, it has doubled in the 20 – to 29-Year-olds within a decade more than. Just in the last few years, case numbers have grown ever stronger. The reasons for this are not yet clear.

Colorectal cancer is, after breast cancer in Germany, the second most common cancer. Per year, such tumors will be diagnosed nationwide, with more than 60,000 people annually, more than 25,000 patients die of the disease. The main risk factor for the disease is age: More than half of the new diagnoses in Germany is people over 70 years of age, only about 10 percent of cancers occur before the age of 55. Since the age of.

However, the frequency is reduced in the elderly population in recent years, as the Numbers of the German cancer registry show. The decline had begun in the year 2003. “Even more significant, the decline in age-standardized mortality rates in the last 10 years of falls in both sexes, with more than 20 percent,” according to the cancer registry.

Accordingly, the annual Rate between 2002 and 2014 fell in the age group from 50 to around one-fifth: of the 204 new cases to 161 cases per 100,000 people.

Industrial countries outside of Europe affected

In the now published study, a Team analyzed the gastro-entero-login Manon Spaander of the University hospital Rotterdam, the data of nearly 144 million people aged 20 to 49 years, from 20 European countries, including Germany.

Accordingly, the frequency of colorectal cancer cases increased in the 20 – to 29-Year-olds between 1990 and 2016 by almost three times: from 0.8 to 2.3 cases per 100,000 people. Just in the last decade the increase has accelerated significantly.

This development also relates to industrial countries outside Europe, shows a more Recently published study in the journal “The Lancet, Gastroenterology & Hepatology”. The researcher cancer registry evaluated up to the year 2014 for a period of seven industrialized countries – Denmark, great Britain, Ireland, and Norway, as well as Australia, new Zealand and Canada.

Also, they found that people develop about 50 in most of the countries studied, is increasingly rare. The decrease explain with screening such as stool tests or colonoscopies, which are precursors of tumors can be detected. The cost for these studies, health insurance is often only for people over 50.

In most countries, the case increased, however, numbers among young adults, most evident in people between 20 and 29 years. “Compared with the 1925 Born in the 1990-born Generation in Norway, a twice-as-large the age-specific risk for colorectal cancer, and a five times increased risk for rectal cancer,” the authors write. “Similar Trends were noted for the 1990-born cohort in Australia, Canada, new Zealand and the United Kingdom.”

Changed life habits as a possible cause

“This is very troubling,” says Michael Hoffmeister of the German cancer research center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. “This development was already known in the US, and has been at doctors for attention. The two studies show this is now for the first Time for Europe and some other wealthy countries.”

Christian Pox, head physician of the Medical clinic at St. Joseph-Stift Bremen, considers these investigations to be very important: “We must watch the Trend carefully.” As causes for the more frequent disease of young people he suspected of changing lifestyles: poor diet, lack of exercise, alcohol consumption and Smoking – this is the classic risk factors for colorectal cancer are Overweight. That Overweight and obesity in young people more and more frequently, is occupied.

At the same time is also possible that more cases of cancer are discovered that would have previously remained undetected. So the “Good”authors to speculate that some of the more frequent use of colonoscopy could have led to a higher detection rate.

“Awareness of bowel cancer in this age group to create”

Basically, the experts Pox and Hoffmeister suggest that the increase in bowel cancer in younger people to clarify. “The Problem is that you do not know the exact causes,” says Hoffmeister. The causes of research is made difficult by the overall small numbers of cases in younger people.

The aim should be, as the Team writes in order to Spaander, to identify particularly vulnerable young people, where early screening would be useful. In addition, the need to inform Doctors on the increase among young people. “We need to raise awareness of bowel cancer in this age group,” confirms Hoffmeister.

In addition, each can feeds help for himself to reduce his risk of colon cancer: Who substances varied, with a lot of vegetables and fibre but little meat, and exercised regularly, not Overweight, has only rarely drinks alcohol and does not smoke, the risk for colon cancer is significantly smaller – as well as for several other diseases.